Search Won’t Be Easy as A-B-C

Now that ABC has Al Michaels in place as its lead NBA play-by-play announcer, who will round out the team?

ABC desperately wanted Doug Collins, but he signed with TNT.

Now the pickings are slim.

Mike Pearl, the new executive producer who came over from TNT to beef up ABC’s coverage, said it could be a two- or three-man team, depending on who is available.

He said incumbents Bill Walton and Tom Tolbert are candidates, but logic says they are longshots. If Pearl’s edict is to improve coverage, then changes are in order.

And if one or both of them were on solid ground, wouldn’t ABC, in announcing the Michaels hiring, have announced he was joining Walton and/or Tolbert?

Pearl said that, besides Walton and Tolbert, he will consider about six candidates, with a decision due in a couple of weeks.

So who else is there? Sean Elliott is already in the ABC-ESPN family. George Karl, fired by the Milwaukee Bucks but still interested in coaching, might be talked into trying broadcasting for a year. Grant Hill is a candidate, Pearl said, if he will agree to take at least a full season off as a player while his injured left ankle heals.

John Salley of Fox Sports Net’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period” has some broadcasting experience. So does Chuck Daly.

The guess here, after talking with several insiders, is that Michaels will be paired with one or two newcomers. Brad Nessler, the lead play-by-play announcer on ESPN telecasts and now No. 2 at ABC, probably will get Elliott, and Mike Tirico and Walton may make up the other ESPN team, with Tolbert going back into the studio full time.

Convincing Michaels to add the NBA to his workload was the easy part for Pearl. With so much talent locked up by TNT, finding a new commentator or two to work with Michaels may not be as easy.

*

Second Time Around

This is Michaels’ second time in the NBA. He’d just as soon forget the first.

When Michaels was fresh out of Arizona State in 1967, a friend put him in touch with the late Jack Kent Cooke, who then owned the Lakers and Kings and was on the verge of opening the Forum in Inglewood.

Cooke gave Michaels a jack-of-all-trades job in public relations and marketing, and there were indications he might get a shot at announcing some King games on radio. Then, out of the blue, he was informed he would be working with Chick Hearn on Laker radio broadcasts, and he was off to Salt Lake City for an exhibition game.

“I believe the opponent was the Baltimore Bullets,” Michaels said.

The gig lasted eight games -- four exhibitions and four regular-season games. Michaels actually got on the air for only four games.

On his way to his ninth game, while on the tarmac at the airport, Michaels was told by coach Butch van Breda Kolff to report to Alan Rothenberg, then the Laker general counsel, back at the Laker offices in Inglewood.

“My bag was already on the plane,” Michaels said. “I had a heck of a time getting my bag. I knew why Rothenberg wanted to see me. I was going to be fired.

“Cooke wanted to bring in Hot Rod Hundley as Chick’s commentator, but Chick didn’t want a commentator,” Michaels said. “I was the sacrificial lamb. It’s the only time in my life I was ever fired.”

Marge Hearn, recalling Michaels’ brief stint, said, “Francis [Chick’s real name] didn’t think he needed a commentator, and he didn’t need one then.”

Michaels was bitter and hurt, but he and Hearn eventually became close friends.

“My anger was directed at Cooke and Rothenberg, not Chick,” Michaels said.

Marge said, “Francis thought a lot of Al, and I’m sure he will do a tremendous job on the NBA.”

And Michaels thought a lot of Hearn. This week he said Hearn and Marv Albert have set the standard for NBA play-by-play. After Hearn died in August 2002, Michaels wrote a tribute for The Times. His tagline:

“The greatest basketball broadcaster of all time?

“Slaaaaaammmmm dunk!!!!”

*

College Football

With ABC televising Washington State at Oregon, a key Pacific 10 Conference game, USC and UCLA will appear on Fox Sports Net and Fox Sports Net 2 on Saturday. It will be USC at California on Fox Sports Net at 3:30 p.m., with Steve Physioc and Tom Ramsey reporting. Then at 7 on Fox Sports Net 2, it will be San Diego State and UCLA, with Bill Macdonald and Mike Sherrard.

The following week, Physioc and Ramsey will work Washington at UCLA, and Ramsey is looking forward to the assignment. It will be his first in-person look at his alma mater’s team this season. Ramsey was a four-year starter at quarterback for the Bruins, and in his senior season, 1982, Karl Dorrell, now UCLA’s coach, was a freshman receiver.

Maybe Ramsey is a little biased, but he believes UCLA will have a decent season.

“It’s P.O.A., a period of adjustment, right now,” he said. “The players are still learning a new system and trying to get comfortable in that new system. It’s like in business, trying to get comfortable in a new job. It takes a while.”

*

Horse Racing

It is a big weekend for horse racing. Fox Sports Net 2 will carry TVG’s coverage of the $1-million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Saturday at 2 p.m. The race features leading handicap horse Mineshaft, the current Breeders’ Cup Classic favorite.... Sunday at 3 p.m., ESPN offers coverage from opening day of the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita, site of the Oct. 25 Breeders’ Cup. On tap Sunday is the Lady’s Secret Breeders’ Handicap, featuring 2002 horse of the year Azeri going for her 12th straight stakes victory, plus the Yellow Ribbon Stakes and Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship.... “Racing From Oak Tree,” with Trevor Denman entering his 21st year as host, makes its debut on Channel 56 Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ... TVG’s “Trackside Live” will be simulcast on Fox Sports Net 2 every race day.

*

Short Waves

With KPLS (830) having been sold and going to an all-Spanish format, the Mighty Ducks have made deals with 50,000-watt XPRS (1090) and XTRA (690, 1150) to share in broadcasting their games this season. XPRS will carry most of the games.... KSPN (710) will have a special edition of “Kings Talk” Monday from 7-10 p.m. ... The Angels’ games tonight and Sunday will be televised in Spanish on KWHY Channel 22.... The Angels announced they have picked up the one-year options on the contracts of announcers Rory Markas and Terry Smith.

With Fox Sports Net 2 televising the high school game between Long Beach Poly and Mission Viejo on Thursday, The Times’ “Spotlight” pregame show with Mike Terry and Lindsey Soto will originate from the game site at Mission Viejo at 6:30 p.m. and be carried by both Fox Sports Net and Fox Sports Net 2. ... Channel 56 is offering prep highlights Friday nights at 11 p.m. on “Friday Night Lights.” Paul Higgins is the producer and host of the show.

CART is on CBS for the final time this year Sunday at 10 a.m. with the Grand Prix at Miami. “CSI: Miami” will be at the race to film an upcoming episode.... NASCAR has named Richard Glover, formerly of ABC and ESPN, its vice president of broadcasting and new media. He replaces Paul Brooks, who was promoted to senior vice president.... Former NFL running back Christian Okoye, who has expressed an interest in broadcasting, will be a guest host on XTRA’s Raider pregame show Sunday at 11 a.m.